Seanchaidh Gaelic Education and Promotion (S.G.E.A.P.) and The Celtic Music Interpretive Centrewill offer a weeklong Scottish Gaelic Immersion course through the Total Immersion Plus methodology in Judique, Nova Scotia, from July 23 to 27, 2007. Sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. comprised of two 3 hours sessions daily (morning and afternoon) and a one hour lunch-break.

Tuition is $150 for the week which will give a total of 30 hours instruction. As well, there will be two Gaelic cultural evenings during the week — A session of singing, tunes and storytelling on Tuesday evening and on Thursday evening a short session dealing with dancing followed by a convoy to the dance at Glencoe Mills.

Total Immersion Plus is practical method of learning the Gaelic language. It was developed by Fionnlagh MacLeòid, Director of the Scottish Playschools Association (Comhairle nan Sgoiltean Araich). The method is designed to get people speaking Gaelic and speaking it well and therefore does not involve reading, writing, translation or grammar until an individual has reached a higher level of understanding Gaelic and of functional fluency in the language. (More information on T.I.P. is available at www.ti-plus.com.)

The course instructor, Goiridh Dòmhnallach (Jeff MacDonald) of Kingsville, Inverness County, has considerable experience in teaching Gaelic and has been trained by MacLeòid in the T.I.P. methodology. He is currently instructing Sgoiltean Gàidhlig (Gaelic in the Home groups) in Glendale/Kingsville, Creignish, Judique, Port Hawkesbury and St. Andrew’s, Nova Scotia.

“Having taught Gaelic in the older methods to both adults and children, I find the T.I.P. methodology to be so much more practical, relaxed and efficient,” MacDonald said. “I’m very pleased to see how quickly folks begin to understand Gaelic and how well they get attuned to the sounds, which is necessary before they can pronounce Gaelic sounds properly. Their pronunciation comes along very well and I can see that folks who continue in this method will eventually speak Gaelic well. That’s not to mention what a great, fun and traditional social experience it is!”

Ten to 15 students will be accepted and the course is filling up. During the days, tea, coffee and snacks will be provided and a lunch may be purchased on site. To sign up or get more information, send an e-mail to sgeap@yahoo.ca or phone Goiridh (Jeff) at (902) 625-0202.

To mark the start of the summer season, we are featuring music from the Dartmoth, Nova Scotia band, the Urban Surf Kings. Check out their website at http://www.urbansurfkings.com as well as http://www.myspace.com/urbansurfkings, where you can listen to more of their great music. We start out with “Giant Cow” from the album “get instro-Mental” and close the show with “Go Go Island” from the album “Flying Saucers Attack”. Both albums and a third live album can bepurchased on http://cdbaby.com (search for “Urban Surf Kings”). Thanks to the band for helping put us in the summer spirit!

We have a lot more here as well — news, conversation, and interviews. To start with, we speak with Bernie Cameron and Margie Beaton about the efforts going on in Cape Breton, teaching children with and using Gaelic. Something that’s very important today, with Gaelic in danger of going away there. We also hear from Alasdair, Bernie’s son, who is “playing with toys” in his house and his schoolhouse, where he is taught each day — he’s home schooled.

Next, we go back to Glendale, Cape Breton, where we hear from Dorothy Pottie for the third time. Dorothy speaks about many things this time, and though this is the last interview we have with her, we hope to return to speak with her in a short time. You go, Dorothy, and we wish every good thing for you in the year to come!

Also, you’ll find out who got the question of the program right, and who will be getting the Gaelcast prize this time. We have another question, and we hope you’ll send us an answer. But, folks, we didn’t say the right email address on the show! Write to getinfo@gaelcast.comwith every answer, question and opinion that you have!

This time, I’m talking about two things that have a connection – global warming and what people here think about it, and the price of gas which has gone up so much in recent weeks. Though we are seeing the effect of global warming in the world, and though we have reason enough to decrease how much gas we use, will we do much in the future – for example, will we not drive too much on the weekend coming up – Memorial Day weekend?

If you have an opinion about this, write in! And, if you are wondering about the music that’s in this program, it’s “Eventual Resolution” by John Bevans. Go to John Bevins and the Avant Guardians to hear it!

Welcome to Beag is Beag! (Little by Little), a new program from Gaelcast that will be a bit shorter than our regular podcasts. We’ll put Beag is Beag out between the larger Gaelcast programs and when we have information or news we should get out quickly.

In our first program in this series, Liam speaks with Raonaid Alcorn, marketing manager at the company Cànan on the Isle of Skye. Cànan is famed for “Speaking Our Language,” but now it has a new Gaelic course on the Internet called “Air Splaoid!”

“Air Splaoid!” is for learners at a basic level, and Raonaid will tell Liam what type of course it is and what resources “Air Splaoid!” has to offer on the Internet. And we’ll learn a bit about the character “Dwelly.”

A somewhat heavy subject this time, folks – a week ago, 32 people were killed in Virginia by a man that we now know was suffering from mental illness and was that way since he was young. There are many questions now about what we should do from this point on – questions about guns, the safety of universities, and about how Virginia Tech dealt with the problem. But we are going to talk about some things that didn’t get much examination – how are universities keeping the peace, and what kind of connections to they have with the police on the outside? Also, are there divisions between the departments of the universities that prevented those in the university from seeing that this man had gone so far that he could kill people? Plenty of questions, and a real scarcity of answers – but we hope that this will raise some debate and thoughts. Listen, and take part!

Then, we go to Maryland, on the stage at imaginationstage.org, where Liam met with a group that has established a play about the hero Cuchulainn. Though this story is perhaps better suited for adults than children,this group has done a laudable effort in bringing out themes that are good for the young ones watching the play. This shows how alive the stories and culture of the Gaels still are! You can get more information about the play from http://www.cahootsni.com/

Finally, Liam visits Dorothy Pottie again to get a view of Cape Breton through her years there. Especially interesting is the conversation she has with Liam about how cars came to the island, and with them, the need for money and to work for money, and how many had to leave to find better work. In a way, you could say that when “civilization” came in, everything fell apart!